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Wednesday, April 8, 2015

THE following stocks could see increased trading on Wednesday following material announcements before the beginning of trading.

Telco Singtel announced its US$810 million purchase of cyber security firm Trustwave Holdings.

Offshore play Ezra Holdings announced a 99 per cent fall in
net profit to US$138,000 from US$19.6 million for its second quarter
ended Feb 28, 2015. Revenue was stable but costs had gone up. Some
US$4.6 million of net profit was due to non-controlling interests.

THE Straits Times Index (STI) was down 0.33 point, or 0.01 per cent,
to 3,465.29 points at 9.10am on Wednesday. This was after US stocks fell
overnight, and ahead of a rate decision by the Bank of Japan.

Some 219.2 million shares were traded with a value of S$74.4 million. Gainers outnumbered losers 125 to 47.

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Daily share trading activity on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) eased in
March from year-ago levels, while derivatives trading continued to
grow.

The securities daily average value (SDAV) slipped by 0.2 per cent
year-on-year to S$1.1 billion in March, according to data by SGX. The
average traded volume of securities experienced a sharper fall, by 38.4
per cent, to 1.4 billion shares.

Turnover velocity, a measurement that is closely tracked by SGX and
that reflects how often a share is traded on average, fell to 37 per
cent from 40 per cent a year earlier.

The derivatives market had more excitement. Average daily trading
volume in derivatives grew 46.2 per cent year-on-year in March to
678,126 contracts. A total of 3.3 million open-interest positions were
left overnight in March, a 5 per cent year-on-year improvement.

The FTSE China A50 Index futures were a
key contributor to growth, with March's 7 million traded contracts more
than double the year-ago 2.5 million volume.

STOCKS to look out for on Tuesday early trading could include EMAS Offshore, KTL Global, Stratech and Ellipsiz.

EMASOffshore Limited reported on Tuesday morning a
net profit of US$9.7 million in the second quarter ended Feb 28, from
US$4 million in the same quarter last year, thanks to foreign exchange
gains and gain on disposal of an anchor handling tug (AHT).But revenue posted by the offshore marine company fell 10 per cent
year on year to US$60.9 million due to weakness in both the shallow
water anchor handling, towing and supply vessels (AHTS) and shallow
water platform support vessels (PSV) segments.

KTL Global
gave corporate updates following a review of its businesses. These
include streamlining its internal and operating efficiencies that will
involve a significant relocation of operations from Singapore to Johor,
scaling up the value chain, deepening its presence in existing markets
and entering new ones.

The Stratech Group,
the new listing entity that emerged following the recently completed
restructuring of Stratech Systems, said on Monday that it is eyeing
overseas markets to drive growth. The group, which recently clinched a
FOD (foreign object and debris) detection system contract for Hong Kong
International Airport, also singled out the US as a potential growth
market.

Trading interest could still continue for semiconductor testing firmEllipsiz Ltd,
which disclosed on Monday that its chief executive officer sold most of
his stake to David Lum Kok Seng, the managing director of construction
firm Lum Chang Holdings. The latter has become the company's largest
shareholder with a 20.44 per cent stake; the stake of Ellipsiz CEO Chan
Wai Leong fell from 19.79 per cent to 1.7 per cent.

SINGAPORE share prices opened higher on Tuesday, with the Straits
Times Index up 13.49 points or 0.4 per cent to 3,466.4 as at 9.01am,
following Wall Street's gains on Monday on easing concerns over Federal
Reserve interest rate hikes.

Top gainers in early morning trade by percentage gains included
Asiatic, up 0.3 cent or 10.7 per cent at 3.1 cents; Ramba Energy, up two
cents or 7.1 per cent at 30 cents; and Darco Water Tech, up 0.2 cent or
6.9 per cent at 3.1 cents. A total of 62.5 million shares worth S$35.7
million had changed hands as at 9.01am. Gainers outnumbered losers 120
to 40.